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GO FIGURE: Fed budget comes to $3M per word

Published on NewsOK
Modified: January 17, 2014 at 5:38 pm •
Published: January 17, 2014

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Talk about words more costly than gold.

The giant federal budget bill that the House passed Wednesday, Senate passed late Thursday and President Barack Obama signed Friday will cost taxpayers nearly $3 million per word, or if you want to really think big, almost $700 million per page.

FILE -This Jan. 16, 2014 file photo shows a bipartisan group of Senator arrive on Capitol Hill in Washington for the Senate vote to approve a $1.1 trillion spending package, the Omnibus Appropriations Act, a bipartisan compromise that all but banishes the likelihood of an election-year government shutdown. From left are, Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas. Talk about words more costly than gold. The giant federal budget bill that Congress passed late Thursday will cost taxpayers nearly $3 million per word, or if you want to really think big almost $700 million per page. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

The bill authorizes $1.1 trillion in spending. It is 1,582 pages long. An Internet word counting program said it has 370,445 words, numbers and symbols. So simple math comes up with $2.9 million per word average and $695 million per page average, though different parts of the budget package spend more than others sections.

By comparison, there are only 4,543 words in the U.S. Constitution, before amendments, and 1,458 words in the Declaration of Independence.

Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington spending watchdog, figured that senators spent slightly more than 69 hours before passing the bill, giving them just under two minutes per page to read it.

And this story is only 162 words. At $2.9 million per word that comes to $470 million. A bargain.